Private Landowner Network Library

Private Landowner Network Library

High Grade Harvesting: Understand the impacts, know your options

By: Paul Catanzaro and Anthony D'Amato

As a landowner, you may be approached by a logger or forester to have a “high grade” harvest of your woods, which they typically call “selective cutting.” Selective cutting refers to a harvest that does not cut all of the trees.

However, there are many forms of selective cutting. While high grading does leave trees after the harvest, the critical issues to consider are whether the harvest will meet your immediate goals and if the remaining trees will best meet your future goals.

All woodlands do not provide equal benefits. The number, size, type, and quality of the trees left after harvesting all affect what your woods will become in the future and, as a direct result, what benefits your woods will provide to you and those that follow. High grading generally takes the best trees and leaves the rest, and may not meet your needs.